Parliamentary panel calls for expert team on tax appeals

A parliamentary committee has urged the revenue department to create an expert panel to help resolve a large number of pending tax appeals. Currently, there are 621,000 appeals totaling ₹29.79 lakh crore stuck in various courts. The committee, which focuses on finance, reported this issue in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. They highlighted that there is a shortage of staff at the first level of appeals. The committee also pointed out that the government spent about ₹108 crore on litigation costs in the 2023-24 financial year. They emphasized that urgent action is required to address this problem. In the previous financial year, 2022, there were 553,000 appeals pending, amounting to ₹20.82 lakh crore. Although the government set up the Joint Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) in 2023, the report noted that there has been no significant improvement in processing these cases. Additionally, the committee recommended that the revenue department should separate Personal Income Tax (PIT) data. They indicated that current PIT data includes around ₹1.5 lakh crore from business income, along with individual income data.